If you attended, you’ll see some words and thoughts you will recognize and a new thought or two. 

Unleashing the Power of Your Voice by Breaking Your Own Rules

When I launched Bilingual in the Boonies in 2006, just a few months after leaving my job as a reporter, I emailed a link to my former editor with the subject line:

“Look Ma, No Hands!”

Blogging was liberating and exciting.

A little scary, too.

I spent nearly 20 years in newsrooms and during that time at least three sets of eyes looked at my copy before it was published.

Suddenly, it was just me, the dashboard and the publish button.

There also had been a lot of rules to follow: correct grammar, the AP Stylebook, even specific newsroom rules of style — everything from the abbreviation of states to how many words should, or could, be in my first graph. (And sometimes, a few rules depended on whom was your editor that day…)

Suddenly, in blogging, I was not bound by my newspaper’s or editor’s rules.

Know the Rules: They Give Confidence

But, I kept to many of the good rules I learned from talented and passionate reporters and editors. I believe in rules. Understanding the basics and norms of whatever you are doing gives you a firm foundation and confidence. A grip on the basics often will point toward a better way of doing things — and in your own style.

Being comfortable as a writer gave me the confidence to try a wholly different medium for writing, one that was somewhat bold and non-reporter-like in 2006.

Back then, journalists didn’t really blog. Plus, as a reporter, not a columnist, I am trained not to express an opinion – and that is pretty much the opposite of blogging.

I had to get over that and by 2009, I especially had to.

Here’s an example of the Disruptive Voice we’re talking about in this Latism session. (#latismvoice)

Personal (and Social Media) Disruption

Nashville voters were facing an English-Only Resolution that would ban city government from working in any language other than English. That meant translations for immigrants and refugees would have been a no-no.

I did a few posts blasting the resolution and a way-too long 4-minute video in the accent and character of a Cuban, Carmen Miranda Remolino, to trash the councilman. The video is painful now to watch. I want to scream “cut! edit! cut! edit!”

Well, the thing was defeated. Amen. But, that was the first time I used my big mouth and my personal blog for a cause became a broadening of what I wrote about.

It also was my intro to vlogging, something I now love and something I learned to do only after I broke two of my own rules:

1. Don’t express your opinion.
2. Cover your face from any video camera.

Know this:

The Rules You Have to Break Most Often are the Ones You Make Up for Yourself

If I had kept to the belief that I was always and forever a writer, a person who avoided the camera, I never would have taken up doing video.

But the truth is that as my blogging style emerged, and when the Tiki Tiki Blog was born to tell the cuentos of what it is like to live Latin in the USA, I had to confront the fact that some stories have to be told on video. (Despite how long Carmen Miranda Remolino went on, I got great feedback from readers and friends.)

So, for the Tiki Tiki, how could I capture the accents, the gestures, the facial expressions with just words? I can’t. So, I got a Flip cam, breathed deeply and went for it. It was scary and unknown, but a necessary way to tell the stories I want to tell.

It is an irony for me that this year the Tiki Tiki and I have been recognized for our videos — not our writing. So, the attention has come for something that I did not know a lot about two years ago, something that forced me to break rules I had established for myself.

The videos bring traffic. I optimize them just as I do blog posts. The videos also bring comments, and they have helped create the community that — blessedly — hangs out with us at the Tiki Tiki’s social media channels. In addition, videos and the Tiki Tiki help win me freelance work, so that’s not bad.

And so, back to the good rules: This new love of video means I have had to study things such technique, editing, software. It means I have watched a whole lot of vlogs, videos and business videos and heck, even commercials, which are great for teaching you to get a point across in 30 seconds. Knowledge is possibility.

And all the good stuff that doing video has brought has happened because I had the confidence to open my mouth, broke my own self-imposed rules and took a chance. When you break down your own barriers, new stuff appears for you. New paths and passions.

Breaking past fear and rules means the authentic appears, and that’s the voice, the person, whom your readers and viewers really want to know.

What Rules Do You Need to Break to Unleash Your Voice?

• What self-imposed rules are keeping you from telling it like it is?
• What rules are keeping you from expressing yourself with a more authentic voice, or in a different medium?
• What rules do you need to break in order to experiment and grow?

PS:

You don’t have to go off and Find Your Voice. You already know what it sounds like. Your Voice is the person who talks inside your head, the sound of your Spirit — the one who tells you to try new stuff, but whom your outside voice, your public persona, often quiets.

Let that Voice out, scary as it can be, and many right things will happen.

#Latism11 Links

If you want to search through the Web to find more of what was said at the panel, search #latismvoice or #latism11.

Here’s a cool list of Latism11 tips sent via Twitter curated by Frankie De Soto.

I didn't usually kiss my sources...

Newsrooms have been sacked. Cubicles are empty. Journalists are worried. The digital age and those damned bloggers are changing the way journalists do their jobs, and the way they see their future.

For the small business owner, or the newsworthy person, these changes mean it is harder to get into the paper, magazine, or on TV. But, it also presents possibilities.

You can suggest great stories to reporters, many of whom are spending their days feeding the story monster and who would appreciate your good tip.

I’ve tweeked the talk I gave at a Blissdom Workshop a couple of weeks ago and am presenting it here as a  How to Be A Story PDF and a slide presentation. (My workshop, by the way, was with the very fabulous and smart: Wendy Piersall, Lindsay Maines, Jenn Fowler and Renee J. Ross.)

It is intended for the small business with little, or no, PR budget; for the blogger with an awesome site; for the person with the interesting story/hobby/craft/lifestyle etc; for the expert who would make a great source, offer a great quote in a trend story, whether it be in the news,business, features or sports section.

You get the idea, right?

Now, the mistake people make when they go after media is thinking only of the gigantic story. But, there are briefs, and trend stories and quickie quotes that offer great exposure too.

I encouraged the bloggers I spoke with at Blissdom to become experts, to become go-to people for the reporters in their area. Sometimes, this will land you a story, sometimes you’ll be part of the story, but once you become a go-to person, you get what others don’t: Connection.

And, calls returned.

Lucky You.

(Now, that picture above. A couple was raising alpacas and llamas in the middle of a fancy neighborhood in Nashville. The guy called me. I did a feature in the winter of 2003. All it took was one telephone call.)

Good luck.

But, in truth, I had another agenda as my prime focus.

To ask women who are focusing on making money online Just How in The Ever Living Hell they balance the constant pull the of computer with kids, husbands and toilet cleanings.

I am here admitting I am woefully lacking in setting strong limits on computer time.  My kid has told me I don’t play with her enough. She has told me I am on the computer ALL.THE.TIME.

And, I am.

Now, I have taken steps to remove myself from the computer more, and my obvious lack of regular of posts here is evidence that I am making strides. However, I still work over at the Tiki Tiki and I have private PR and copy writing clients and all that requires I sit on my culo a lot. And, of course, I am the production, office, shipping and customer service departments of Los Pollitos Dicen.

There’s always one more e-mail to write, one more post to edit, one more Tweet to send. But, if  I died tomorrow, you, dear reader, may leave a comment here,  or if you know me for reals post a link on your Facebook status. My demise may end up as a Tweet, even. But, my husband and only child would not be giving too much of a crap about whether I posted enough.

So, I have been struggling to make it all work.

How to I continue to build something for myself, something I love and adore, without sucking as a mother and a wife?

Turns out few of us who are blogging full-time have got it all together. At least that is the feedback I got from the women I hung with at Blissdom. They wanted more on the topic, they wanted the speakers with successful, money-making blogs to tell them exactly how in the hell they manage to produce content, make a living, nourish their families and themselves. One panelist said she realized there were days she didn’t look into her small child’s eyes because she was online and Tweeting. WTF? Sadly, too many of us would have to nod in agreement.

For the record, I know if I was working for someone else, I also would be complaining and whining about lack of time…but, in my fantasy land, the fact I work for myself should translate into clean closets and time for mani-pedis.

OK, OK, blah blah blah on my part.

Are you online too much? Not sure? Read the wonderful Angelica Perez’s post Is Your Time on the Internet Impacting Your Children? Powerful Ways to Find Out and What to Do.

Now, I’m going to go play with my puppy.

Screw the tweeting.

xo

Corporate CEOs, marketers and advertisers are atwitter about reaching Latinos online. You probably already know the stats and the whys, but the most honest reason: Dinero.
We have it, they want it.

And, in the interest of full disclosure before we go any further, I have a business and another blog created for the same reason. Viva el American dream! (Go get yourself some of it too!)

But I think we, as a target market, are a big, hairy, scary monster.

Why?

We’re every shade of human possible. Some of us are of native peoples, some of us are only of European background and every amount of mix in between. Some are of Jewish descent and some of us have some chinito in us. Some of us speak Spanish, some of us don’t. Some have no idea what an arepa is, while others live for tripe on Sundays.

Pity the marketers.

But, if you allow me some stereotype in the name of fun, watch the video for some truisms (at least my own) about why Social Media, which confounds millions, is perfect for reaching Latinos, a people who long ago perfected the Radio Bemba, the unfailingly good information distribution system of our gente.

Twitter?

Facil.